Since being founded in 1993 in Darwin, Sportsbet has promptly become one of the largest bookmakers in the Australian betting industry. Purchased by Matthew Tripp for $250,000 in 2005, a time when Sportsbet had just eight employees, the company’s brisk growth saw 51% of Sportsbet bought by Irish bookmaking giant Paddy Power for $200 million in 2009 with an additional 39% share purchased for $132 million in 2011. Sportsbet however continues to operate as its own entity.
Sportsbet delivers a great range of sports to bet on both pre-match and in-play, from the most popular sporting leagues and competitions across Australia such as the AFL, NRL, A-League, Super League not to mention horse and greyhound racing, to the most popular leagues and tournaments around the globe like the English Premier League, Champions League, NFL, NBA and cricket. Sportsbet also offers a deep list of obscure sports leagues to bet on. If there’s a sporting event you want to bet on, there’s a great chance that Sportsbet has a market available for you.
Betting Interface and Website Layout
Sportsbet uses a responsive website design that tailors the display to the size of your screen. This review will focus on the desktop version of the website.
The Sportsbet interface uses a beginner-friendly three-column layout, with sports listed on the left, markets and odds in the centre and the betting slip on the right.
The navigation pane uses a dropdown approach. Quicklinks to the most popular upcoming events are displayed along with links to Racing and Sports. When Sports is selected only five or so popular leagues are displayed. To view the rest of the sports you then click on a secondary “Sports A-Z” link. When you click on a popular sport like Soccer the featured markets are displayed in the centre column. Links are displayed above these markets to view upcoming fixtures and a list of all available leagues. This approach results in a lot of clicks to get to the league of your choice, but it becomes fast to use once you get used to it.
Links to specials, live betting, results, the help centre and other website features are also displayed in the navigation column.
When you select a league the centre page is refreshed to display upcoming fixtures for that league and in some cases, a league table is displayed to the right of the odds.
For each fixture the head-to-head and, where applicable, also the line and over/under odds are displayed. You can either click on a fixture to view all available markets for that game or, where applicable, you can click on a dropdown menu at the top right hand corner of the box to view a different market (like alternative lines, winning margins) for every fixture.
Tabs are available at the top of the box to switch between matches odds and futures odds.
Above the odds are links to other leagues, where applicable, and above these are breadcrumbs to navigate to higher categories.
The betting slip is intuitive to use. It is split vertically into Singles, Standard Multi and, when more than three items are in the slip, Combo Multis (like doubles, trebles, 4 folds, Trixie, Patent, Yankee etc.) You can toggle on and off the display of each category.
The sports and racing sections of the website are seamlessly integrated so that racing and sports selections can be combined in multis and exotic multis.
Sportsbet Products
- Sportsbet Powerplay: for the keen punter, Sportsbet Powerplay can be used once daily. With Sportsbet being amongst the first to market with odds, it can become very useful for obtaining maximum odds.
- Enhanced Odds: enhanced odds gives punters the chance to get in early on some higher odds for weekend races. Sportsbet offer larger odds for selected horses the day before they race giving punters an opportunity to get an early advantage.
- Cash Card: the cash card is one of the best products available. It allows the punter to obtain instant access to their Sportsbet winnings where you can get cash out from an ATM in Australia. You can even buy items with card.
- Cash Out: sportsbet offers good cash outs. It’s great for multis when you are worried about that last leg favourite not turning up.
- Live Betting: place a bet while your race or game is live. You will have to call up Sportsbet and provide our name, selection and stake to make a bet live.
- Multi Builder: quick way to place a cross sports multi bet with the options of Head to Head, Margin and Line Only negative is that they don’t offer over/under markets which is huge especially in the Premier League (has double chance and Half/Full which aren’t big markets)
- BYO Bets: ability to message Sportsbet to request a market for crazy/unique bets and they’ll supply odds.
- Same Game Multi: sportsbet enables punters to create same game multis in a number of sports events. Combining a number of legs together in the same game gives punters the oppurtunity to expand on their betting experience and create higher odds with just the one game.
- The Fold: gives you the opportunity to cancel your horse racing bet and receieve your stake back after the race started. You must fold within a few seconds of the horses jumping.
- Take A Break: if you believe you require a break from punting, Sportsbet give you the ability to exclude yourself from betting markets.
- Same Race Multi: combine selections in one bet for bigger odds!Now you can pick horses to finish anywhere in the Top 4 in the same race & combine them all in one bet!
Sports betting
Sportsbet cover all major sporting events such as the Cricket World Cup, Rugby World Cup and even niche betting markets such as the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
They make it very easy to find the most popular events to bet on under their ‘Quick Links’ tab along the left hand side of the page. Here you can find all the relevant and upcoming sport matches across the world, as well as any matches upcoming in the AFL, NFL or Super Rugby.
Being an Australian-based bookmaker, Sportsbet cover all the local sports which include rugby, league, netball, Australian rules and local golfing events.
American sports are also some of the most popular with the NBA attracting the most money spent each week. MLB, NFL and NHL are also popular american sports to bet on as they are often scheduled every day at peak times for Australians.
They even cover the lesser-known sports such as darts, boxing, cycling, MMA and surfing — where plenty of Australian’s compete around the world, including Mick Fanning and Sally Fitzgibbons.
Horse Racing
Sportsbet offers a strong racing line-up, with fixed odds made available in good time.
Expert tips are provided for most meets, which provide a commentary along with the top-rated selections for each race.
All of the usual exotics are available, and flexi betting is supported.
The feature enables you to select multiple runners to win or finish in the top 2, 3 or 4 in the race. This enables you to select 1-4 legs for your multi.
Some examples are:
- 1 leg: Horse A to finish in the top 2
- 2 legs: Horse A to Win + Horse B to finish in the top 3
- 3 legs: Horse A to Win + Horse B to finish in the top 4 + Horse C to finish in the top 4
- 4 legs: Horse A to finish in the top 2 + Horse B to finish in the top 2 + horse C to finish in the top 4 + Horse D to finish in the top 4
The main drawcard of the same race multi feature is it gives you more selection flexibility.
The 1-leg option gives you two new opportunities for races where the top three place: to back a horse to finish in the top 2 or in the top 4.
Unlike standard exotics, you no longer have to rely on three runners to finish in the top 3 or four runners to finish in the top four. For example you can simply select 2 runners to both place or both finish in the top four.
Because the feature uses fixed rather than Tote odds you can play around with selections and immediately see the resulting odds. Any time you add a selection the updated odds are automatically displayed.
Sportsbet promotions
Cash back offers: This might work that if you place a win bet on a team or runner, and it finishes on the podium the minor placings, that you get a refund up to a certain amount. This type of promotion is not a daily occurrence, but it does pop up from time to time, especially on the larger meetings or events.
Justice Refunds and Payouts: Sportsbet is known to pay out on losing bets that have been lost due to extraordinary circumstances. For instance all bets made on Essendon before the 2016 season were given back to punters, after the players were suspended for the season.
Early payout: If your bet looks like it’s going to romp home Sportsbet will often pay out early. For instance a few years ago the EPL was decided weeks out before the season finished, with the bookie giving all punters winnings bets.
Protest Payouts: If your racing bet loses because a protest is upheld you will still be paid out your winnings.
Mobile Site
Sportsbet.com.au have gotten it spot on with their mobile site as it takes the best bits of their app and makes it available for events betting at anytime.
The mobile site is handy if you are research whilst trying to place a bet, it prevents the need to open and close an app each time and on face value you can do basically everything you can on their app via the mobile site.
It is quick to load and punters can place a bet quickly and efficiently to make sure you never miss another winner.
Their app provides more for a punter but the mobile site is still a very good product if for some reason you don’t want to use the app and i think it is one of if not the best mobile sites across all bookmakers in Australia.
SportsBet Mobile App Betting
When it comes to apps and mobile betting, SportsBet is up with Australia’s very best. They have mobile apps available across a wide variety of platforms and operating systems. Whether you are on an iPhone or iPad, Android, Blackberry or Window’s Phone, then SportsBet has an app for you.
Their iPad app allows you to stream live race commentary, as well as providing lots of betting options, including live in-play odds. The iPhone app also has 1000s of markets available.
The android app is just as good as its iPhone counterpart, but it cannot be found in the Play Store. It must be downloaded directly from SportsBet site, and Android version 5.0 or later is required to run it. The whole process of downloading the app for android mobile devices is pretty straightforward. Just follow instructions on their mobile app page, and you’ll be done in no time. The Android app has the same slick design as the iOS one, so you should find it very easy to navigate around and locate your bets.
If you are not a fan of downloadable apps, don’t worry, SportsBet got you covered. Just use the web browser on your mobile device to enter SportsBet site, and you’ll be ready to start betting right away. It doesn’t matter whether you prefer web-based, Android or iOS app, you’ll have access to all of the top SportsBet mobile betting features. If you want to learn more about SportsBet iOS and Android app, you can check out our in-depth SportsBet Mobile App review.
Signing Up With Sportsbet
Before you can place bets with an online bookmaker you have to first create an account. This is typically an easy process through which you will be asked to provide some basic personal information.
So how to sign up with Sportsbet? It’s simple and our step by step Sportsbet sign up guide will take you through this process.
Step 1
When you visit Sportsbet you will see a number of ‘join now’ links displayed on the front page. Simply click one of these links and the Sportsbet registration page will open for you.
Step 2
The Sportsbet registration page will ask you to provide certain pieces of personal information such as your name, date of birth, address, phone and email address. You will also be asked to choose a username, password, security question and your Refer A Friend referral code if you have one. If at any point you have any questions or issues, click the Help tab at the bottom of the page and you will have the opportunity access Sportsbet’s live help chat service.
Step 3
Once you have provided all the necessary information, click the Register button at the bottom of the registration page. You will then be given the opportunity to deposit funds into your Sportsbet account as well as set your deposit limits. (We will cover the range deposit methods available to Sportsbet customers later in our review).
SportsBet Deposit And Withdrawal Methods
- Instant Deposit Methods: Credit/Debit Card, PayPal, POLi (desktop), Moneybookers/Skrill.
- Non-Instant Deposit Methods: BPAY, Bank Transfer.
Another vital factor to consider when choosing an online bookmaker is the available banking facilities. SportsBet offers customers a number of ways to deposit, both instant and non-instant. The instant deposit methods available with SportsBet are via credit/debit card, PayPal, POLi (desktop only) and Moneybookers/Skrill. Non-instant deposit methods include BPAY and bank transfers.
It is important to note that once you deposit money with SportsBet, you cannot withdraw it until you have placed bets to the same value. SportsBet recommends using bank transfers to withdraw cash, but they have other options too. Credit cards, PayPal, Skrill/Moneybookers or SportsBet cash cards can all be used to access your winnings.
Customer service
It’s always nice to see an online bookmaker who clearly care about their customers. This is one of the key reasons as to why so many people sign up to Sportsbet Australia as their customer service team have proven to be friendly, professional and very efficient.
The Sportsbet customer service team are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The easiest way to get in touch with them is to use the handy live chat service. This can be found in the sidebar at the left of the Sportsbet homepage.
There is also the option of sending Sportsbet an email and the brand pledge to get back to you within 48 hours. You can also call the Sportsbet telephone hotline. This is open between 8am and 11pm from Monday to Saturday, and 9am to 9pm on Sundays. Fax numbers and a postal address are also available.
Most Sportsbet reviews have liked the fact that the brand have also included a comprehensive FAQs section within their Help Centre. This covers all of the most important aspects of the sportsbook and includes topics regarding deposits, withdrawals, getting started and so on.
So is Sportsbet reliable for good customer service? All of the Sportsbet ratings point to the fact that this brand are dedicated to offering you a top class sports betting experience.
The customer contact number for any issues, including those about mobile devices are as follows:
Toll Free Phone: 1800 132 387 (racing) or 1800 138 238 (sport)
Email: [email protected]
